CHRISTCHURCH BRANCH 1 Contents Contents Introduction .............................................. 3 The Early Years and World War One ....... 4 The Inter-War Years .............................. 12 World War Two ..................................... 19 After World War Two ............................. 30 The Present Day ................................... 38 The Future ............................................. 49 Acknowledgements ............................... 50 Further Information ................................ 50 Top: Bournemouth Aviation Meeting 1910 (photo courtesy Mr J Barker & Mrs E Barker, Bournemouth) Bottom: Dassault Falcon 20s operated by Cobham plc Dorset Aviation Past and Present 2 CHRISTCHURCH BRANCH Introduction 2016 marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Royal In Dorset, the Society is represented by Christchurch Branch, Aeronautical Society, the world’s oldest professional institution which organises monthly evening talks at Bournemouth University dedicated to furthering the art, science and engineering of between September and April, and also organises occasional aeronautics and astronautics. The Society is unique in welcoming visits for its members to aerospace locations of interest. Members all professionals working in aerospace, whether pilot or lawyer, of the public are welcome to attend any or all of the talks free of engineer or accountant. This gives it the authority to represent the charge, although for a small annual subscription they can be a entire aerospace sector to the community at large. Branch member and enjoy additional benefits. Among many activities undertaken by the Society are providing To mark the Society’s 150th anniversary, Christchurch Branch policy advice to government, the organisation of specialist wishes to highlight the part Dorset has played and continues to conferences, encouraging young people into aerospace and play in aerospace, by producing this guide to aviation in the running the National Aerospace Library. county. Whilst many locations no longer have any evidence of what took place there, others do, and we hope this will both inform The Society has a broader aim outside these professional you and encourage you to get out and about around our beautiful activities: to inform the general public of the importance of aviation county. and space activities to the UK and the world at large. To this end, it operates through local Branches in the UK and overseas. For more information about Christchurch Branch, please contact These Branches, typically run by a mix of aerospace professionals our Branch Secretary at [email protected] For information and enthusiasts, put on regular talks for the general public on a about the Royal Aeronautical Society as a whole, the website is wide range of aerospace topics, given by specialists in their field. www.aerosociety.com Mel Porter, Branch Chairman May 2016 Dorset Aviation Past and Present 3 The Early Years and World War One (WW1) The Early Years and World War One Dorset is not an area well known for aviation pioneering. In fact, in the years leading up to World War One, what local aviation activity there was mainly occurred around Bournemouth, which was not at that time in Dorset at all. Both Bournemouth and Christchurch were part of Hampshire until 1974, but they are so important to the development of aviation in the Dorset area that it would be wrong to Early Flights ............................................. 5 exclude them. It was not until World War One that aviation really began to make its The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls ............... 6 mark across the county, mainly in support of defending the English Channel. Dorset was also home to the first member of the Royal Flying displays and the first flying school.. 7 Flying Corps to be awarded the Victoria Cross. World War One ........................................ 8 WW1 Airship Operations ........................ 11 Dorset Aviation Past and Present 4 The Early Years and World War One (WW1) Early flights Dorset’s earliest involvement with aviation saw ballooning during the The first powered flight in Britain, by Samuel Cody, took place on 16 late 1800s. At least two flights ended dramatically, with one, in 1881, October 1908, and flying came to Dorset within two years. resulting in the loss of the MP for Malmesbury, Walter Powell. A balloon called Saladin in which Powell was a passenger landed heavily on the clifftop at Eype, near Bridport. The pilot was thrown Ralph Channon of Dorchester experimented with a Wright-style out and the balloon rose into the air again. It drifted out into the biplane during 1909/10, but he only managed a few short flights from English Channel with Powell still on board. Two years later it was the slopes of Maiden Castle. reported that wreckage of the balloon had been found in Spain, but there was no sign of Powell. Other early Dorset flyers were William McArdle, a Bournemouth garage owner, and J Armstrong Drexel, an American. They met whilst learning to fly near Paris in 1909. On returning to Bournemouth they built a number of Bleriot-style monoplanes in 1910, giving a flying display at Talbot Village over the Whitsun Bank Holiday. Drexel flying his Bleriot J Armstrong Drexel and William McArdle Contemporary image showing Saladin drifting out to sea Dorset Aviation Past and Present 5 The Early Years and World War One (WW1) The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls (1877 - 1910) In 1910, as part its centenary celebrations, Bournemouth staged an International Aviation Meeting at Southbourne Aerodrome. This was one of the first such events in the country. Prize money totalled £8,500, with the outright winner – Leon Morane from France – taking home £3,425. The meeting attracted many well-known British aviators, including Samuel Cody, Claude Graham- White, J T Moore-Brabazon and The Hon Charles Stewart Rolls. The event is remembered principally for the fatal crash of Rolls on 12 July when his Wright Flyer biplane broke up in mid-air, making him the first person to die in an air crash in Great Britain. As well as being one of the founding partners of Rolls-Royce, he was the first person to fly across the English Channel non-stop in both directions and was also a well-known balloonist. His death caused great public mourning. Part of the aerodrome later became the site of St Peter’s School, where there is a memorial to the Rolls crash. Rolls ready to take off in his Wright biplane Rolls in flight The Rolls memorial at St Peter’s School Dorset Aviation Past and Present 6 The Early Years and World War One (WW1) Flying displays and the first flying school Henri Salmet first visited Bournemouth in Gustav Hamel was a British aviator who Farmland at Talbot Village was August 1912 in his Daily Mail sponsored learned to fly at the Blériot school in Pau. Bournemouth’s first flying ground and in Bleriot biplane. Louis Blériot himself commented that he November 1915 a flying school was had never seen a pilot with such natural established there by the Bournemouth He returned in 1913, running into a tree on ability. Aviation Company. It was used to train landing. Undeterred, he came back that prospective Royal Flying Corps (RFC) pilots December to fly Father Christmas into Hamel flew the first official airmail in Great and, although it was wartime, flights were Meyrick Park. Britain, between Hendon and Windsor in also available to the public at a cost of £3. 1911. In the same year, he made the first of 21 cross-channel flights. He gave a The school moved to nearby Ensbury Park number of public flying displays and during in 1917 and the site reverted to farming. In July 1912 a Mr Fischler demonstrated his a visit to Meyrick Park, Bournemouth, in Farman waterplane from alongside April 1914 he flew twenty-one loops. Bournemouth pier, giving a flight to the Mayor and Town Clerk. Fischler’s Farman alongside Bournemouth Pier Dorset Aviation Past and Present 7 The Early Years and World War One (WW1) World War One In August 1916 a plane, flown by one of the instructors from Talbot Ensbury Park, then on the northern outskirts of Bournemouth, took Village, flew low over Poole. He was giving a demonstration over the over from Talbot Woods at the beginning of 1917. town to raise funds for two of its hospitals. He landed at Poole Park to give the public a close-up look at his plane. Although still a civilian flying school, the Bournemouth Aviation Company continued to train pilots for the RFC and Royal Naval Air The Admiralty established a shipyard in the Lake area of Hamworthy Service, as well as Belgians and Canadians. It claimed to be the best in 1916. This was later expanded to accommodate seaplanes, -equipped flying school outside London. Aircraft used included probably Short 184s, operating patrols over the English Channel. Caudron, Curtiss JN-3s and Avro 504s. On 1 April 1918 the Royal Air Force was formed and the site became RAF Winton. Short 184 Caudron biplane trainer Dorset Aviation Past and Present 8 The Early Years and World War One (WW1) World War One (continued) Portland Weymouth Portland was a major Royal Navy base The Daily Mail sponsored a race for which, during the Naval Review of May waterplanes at Weymouth in 1912, 1912, saw a Short biplane take off from the probably to tie in with the Naval Review deck of HMS Hibernia, so paving the way for held at Portland in May. naval aviation. A number of other flights were made in connection with the Review, A field at Lodmoor was used by other operating from a site at nearby Lodmoor. aircraft attending the Naval Review. It remained in limited use during WW1 and In September 1916 a flight of Short 184 was subsequently listed as Weymouth’s seaplanes was based at Castletown, Aerodrome. It was little used, however, Portland, to operate patrols over the English and closed in 1922.